Voices of White City
10,000 sticker, hoarding project
2005
BBC Press release 17 June, 2005:
BBC LAUNCHES GIANT POETRY ARTWORK TODAY
The BBC launches a giant artwork – BBC Voices Of White City – today. Made up of 10,000 stickers, each one bearing an individual poem, and extending to more than 100 metres, the artwork is located on a wooden hoarding at the BBC Media Village at White City in London.
The individual poem stickers combine to spell out large, human-size words, which in turn join together to make the phrase ‘Voices Of White City’. Passers-by will be invited to peel off any poem and reattach it somewhere else.
The unique artwork is designed by John Morgan and is a product of the BBC Voices Of White City project, a collaboration between BBC staff and community participants from the White City estate and other parts of Hammersmith and Fulham. The aim of the project was to create better understanding between the BBC and its local community and to give that understanding a tangible voice.
The poems were written in range of workshops run across 2004 and led by established writers, including leading contemporary poets Francesca Beard and Bernadine Evaristo and rap artist Crisis. Workshops included a child/parent story telling session, youth rap sessions, reminiscence writing with members of the Nubian Elders community and a mixed writing group bringing together BBC staff and West London residents. The poetry produced tells intense stories of the participants’ lives - their connections, their conflicts, their pasts and their futures.
Robert Seatter, BBC Project Manager, says: ‘The ultimate aspiration was always that this work would find its way into the landscape so it could be reflected back to the community from where it came. But the additional innovation is John Morgan’s wonderful hoarding design which invites people to peel off any poem they take a liking to. Who knows how far some of these poems will travel?!’
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